Ferrari LaFerrari vs Mclaren P1 vs Porsche 918

All true but the irony being pointed out, is that despite the 'engineering' advance, a 100K+ car doesn't give you any better safety or longevity than a Camry. If you knew nothing at all about cars, and someone told you here's a Camry it costs 25K, lasts 200k miles and gets 30mpg and an A crash rating and over there's a 100k car, you'd naturally think the more expensive car must last 400k miles of use, get 100mpg and be even better at protecting its occupants in a crash, yet it doesn't.

While carbon-fiber tubs of certain exotics do increase safety, most 100k+ cars require more maintenance (and at a higher cost), have a shorter lifespan, get fewer mpgs etc than a Camry - so what are we paying for? I guess just Looks and Speed. And the deeper irony is that the Speed factor can't even legally be used on the street and yet once we bring our cars to the track, now they are devalued for being used on the track. It's a seriously laughable conundrum yet somehow continues to work. It reminds me of that hilarious Chris Rock sketch about us living in the end days as the best golfer's black and the best basketball player being white (Steve Nash at the time)...

 

Did The McLaren P1 Get Beaten At The Nürburgring?

 

Borrowing from another post: "you really don't have any sense of humor, have you?"

If you take a cab you miss out on the experience of driving, and in machines like the three we are here to discuss I think we can all agree on one thing - that experience would be a pretty amazing.

Choose not to wear a watch ever again and what are you missing? Perhaps a tan line on your wrist? I am okay with that.

I do appreciate they are finely crafted instruments - I just see no great use for one, nor a reason to spend untold thousands of dollars on something that can be duplicated (the ability to determine the time) for so much less. As the world progresses some things become obsolete, and except as a fashion accessory the watch is headed that way if not already there for a large number of people. I am guessing that you don't know too many who still have a sun dial in their yard that they use to determine the time of day, right? Maybe as decoration.

Yes - no denying that of this trio I do love the P1 most. That said, there are several Ferraris that I also love and in general I have a lot of admiration for the history of the brand. I even love the 308 GT4 which was styled by Bertone and a lot of die hard Ferrari enthusiasts probably don't even rank that one too highly. The passion I have for Ferrari is why I have been reading this forum for more than a decade and been a paying subscriber for slightly less than that. There is more to FChat than this one thread you know.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I was the very first person to discover and share an actual image of the LaFerrari here on FChat before the cover had come off in Geneva - if that's not proof of someone being engaged in the primary purpose of this forum then I don't know what is. Everyone here was dying to see it at that point. If that's not proof enough for you read some of the other few thousand posts I have made here that have nothing at all to do with McLaren.

>8^)
ER

 

Eric you don't just "love" the P1.

If the P1 had a baby, the Morey show would have a DNA test proving you're the father.

 

LOL - actually the P1 is my love child with the F1.

...and it's Maury btw.

>8^)
ER

 

You realize this happens more often than you think, right? I mean, where did Chris Harris get the F40 and F50 that he used for his video a few months back?

In fact, I'd probably let Chris Harris, and Steve Sutcliffe, take my car(s) for a spin. Only those two. No one else.

And, having said that, those two are the only video reviews I'm looking forward to, to be honest. Here's to hoping someone in Europe / The UK let's them take their LaFerrari for a spin!

 

From the article:

"Many on McLarenLife presume the car is running hot laps sector-by-sector rather than attempting full laps."

That's my feeling. Without being able to recharge the batteries at will, they have to use fastest sectors to get below 7 minutes.

 

The P1 takes every available opportunity to recharge its battery.

Since you've focused on comments made on McLarenLife in that piece from Jalopnik, focus on this one for a moment:

Without stopping anywhere along the lap of the Ring to recharge its battery ( ) the P1 arrives at the start of the Döttinger Höhe straight with enough battery power in reserve to run the length at full power, holding at its 205 mph limited top speed in Race Mode, and then it's back to recharging as soon as you slow for the first turn of the next lap.

>8^)
ER

 

Its been said several times the p1 does not run out of battery at the ring. Nor is there any turbo lag or any lack of responsiveness whatsoever. You have swallow-your-teeth acceleration on tap all the time. Either people don't read, or don't want to know, or whatever. It does not defy physics. As soon as you lift even the smallest amount, you are not 100% throttle, or go for the brakes, the charger kicks in, even for a brief amount of time. Nobody can drive this car at the ring with 100% throttle for the full lap. So it does not run out of battery.

 

Of course it doesn't run out of battery power but it certainly doesn't maintain it at 100% after a fast lap and, as seen on the 918 tests, will need a charging up lap to replicate the fastest times.
Some of these three cars are going to be affected more than others. LaFerrari is certainly not one of those given the smallest capacity batteries and biggest capacity engine while Porsche has no turbo lag to fill in, a bigger engine and regenerative braking, so I wouldn't bet against them either.

I find the P1's engineering the least appealing

 

Igor, the p1 can go lap after lap after lap without running out of battery. every one a hot lap. It will run run out of gas before it runs out of battery. This was a design objective. I dont know how to be any more clear.

 

The matter is not "running out of battery" but replicate the same time over and over. When the first lap starts, batteries are gonna be 100%, but at the start of the second they won't and times will be affected. The matter is by how much and that's where LaFerrari will shine. And mind you I prefer 918's engineering

 

I give up. Some things you just cant fix.

 

A battery at 80% or 40% or even 20% is still going to allow the E-motor to run at full power.

Prefer what you want, but the P1 is engineered to never run out of juice when you would need it and charge the hell out of the batteries when you don't.

>8^)
ER

 

Yes but the duration of the effort will change and this will affect performances. If not running out of juice is done at the expenses of engine's torque it is not such a big achievement performance-wise. It just means that when the batteries are under a certain threshold, part of the engine's power will be forced into recharging them, no matter how much you need it.

 

It doesn't steal power from the engine to charge the batteries when you need it - only when you don't.

I am well aware that you used to run around here using the screenname "IntelligentOperator" which was a bit of a misnomer as you'll recall.

I see that things have not changed - you still believe you know everything and you still do not.

>8^)
ER

 

And I am well aware you knew, nothing to hide as you know. Still your reasoning doesn't make sense. Put it on a Dyno at full power and it will need to charge from somewhere when the batteries go down.

 

You'd break the dyno before the car would run out of power - those aren't designed to run continuously just like there are no racetracks in the world where you would run flat out long enough to deplete all the power. Keep trying...

>8^)
ER

 

Do you believe that after a fast lap on any circuit the batteries will still be at 100%? All hybrids have this same problem and P1 is no different. The fact that it doesn't run out of battery power is really of no importance when it's at the expenses of the engine's performances.

 

I think you may be missing his point. If your mobile phone has 30% of the battery left it does not mean that the screen is 30% as bright and the processor is running at 30% capacity...

 

He's not really missing my point - he is trying to make his own, which is wrong.

He doesn't like that my point contradicts the one he is trying to make. Smarter minds than his have said he is incorrect, and I remain confident in their experience and ability to know better.

Perhaps he should test the vehicle himself to try and prove his points, or not.

>8^)
ER

 

Now you are missing it, though, because phones don't have a built in generator. If in one lap the charge goes from 100 to 30%, if the next is run at the same pace, the batteries will flatten at mid lap. The only way to avoid it is to draw some of the energy from the engine and if this could be done without compromising performance, then the batteries would have been at 100% even after the first fast lap.

 

Actually Igor - if you added it all up, one lap of the Ring results in 200% battery depletion. I wonder how that's possible...

>8^)
ER

 

It's possible, if the batteries are drawing 150% of their capacity during one lap for example, and started the lap at 100%. That means that at the end of the lap they will have 50% left.

 

I think what you fail to understand is the rate at which the batteries used by these new hypercars recharge themselves at speed.

Do you remember in Jeremy Clarkson's recent review of the P1 how he complained so many times about the batteries running out?

And do you recall the other day in Chris Harris' new film on the 918 Spyder where he echoed the same complaints about it?

And do you recollect the imaginary LaFerrari road test where the journalist who isn't going to be allowed to drive it complained over and over about the batteries running out of power?

No, you don't because none of those comments will never be made, except by people like you who have zero experience with the cars and only think they know what they are talking about.

>8^)
ER